Juvenile Nation

March 16, 2003|By Paul Valentine

A MAJOR outcome of the culture wars of the last 50 years can be summarized in a single phrase: the juvenilization of America.

Its impact, fashioned by Madison Avenue, driven by the TV networks, crowned by Hollywood and bought by our social systems from education to religion to the courts, is so pervasive that the good that came out of those same culture wars is now substantively diminished.

The tendency of American adults to revert to or remain in essentially juvenile behavior has grown like spawn in a petri dish of narcissism, instant gratification and reduced attention span - the social markers of adolescence - all carefully cultivated by the pitchmen of 21st century American pop culture and consumerism.

The Internet, encrusted with pop-up, pop-out commercials, along with huge segments of its global reach allotted to porn, gambling, teen chat rooms and an endless groaning table of beads-and-baubles consumer goodies.

High-decibel, drug-soaked rock concerts so disordered and anarchic they require flying squads of security and emergency medical personnel to minimize vandalism, personal injury and other violence.

Forced spontaneity at sports arenas, where flashing electronic signs and scantily clad cheerleaders relentlessly instruct fans when, how and at what noise levels to cheer - an exercise in mass infantilism.

Employees of major corporations so unsocialized and directionless that they must undergo instruction on appropriate attire, footwear, grooming, hygiene, punctuality, telephone manners and e-mail etiquette, as well as seminars on how to interact with other employees to avoid racial, ethnic and sexual conflict.

The blame game - Johnny made me do it, adult-style - in which refusal to accept personal responsibility has begotten a gargantuan industry of regulatory procedure and litigation: suing McDonalds for causing obesity.

The descent into child-speak - using only first names on introduction, blurring the line between private and public discourse, sitcom potty talk, talking dirty regardless of place or occasion.

These are not the progeny of some vast left-wing conspiracy to undermine the American way of life. On the contrary, they constitute a hallowed sector of the New Market Economy, molded and guided by mainstream entrepreneurs and their barristers, Wharton MBAs and college-trained PR shills, all boosting the new bread-and-circuses world of eye candy replacing substance, sound devolving to noise, brains surrendering to glands.

It involves the care and feeding of an ever more docile cohort of consumers - those weaned from the substantive pursuits of civic life and obligation to gorge on a feast of virtual sensation, experiential buzz and the new Puritanism of sex without love.

The ripple effect of this process is enormous, reaching many of America's most basic institutions - dumbing down everything from news and late-night talk shows to college curricula and political campaign advertising.

It has helped fuel the upsurge of fundamentalist religion in America with its reduction of spiritual responses to bromides and child-like incantations ("God answers knee-mail").

Worse, it further encourages social and familial irresponsibility among chronological adults already jumping restlessly from relationship to relationship, separating, divorcing, shirking child custody and ignoring court-ordered support payments.

Many of the positive outcomes of America's culture wars - expanded human rights, increased economic opportunity, greater artistic and literary freedom - resulted from the interaction of political protest and legislative process among thinking adults.

But somewhere along the way, the nation's sense of proportionality and scale began to wobble and then to collapse. Pushed by the new hucksters, freedom became license; artistry became performance; self-interest became narcissism; excess became necessity. The perfect juvenile.